DM Alexander Kilcoyne's Sargavan Saga

"What is this place? Puzzles in Azlant, more magic than you see in a year in Absalom. Wheels literally within wheels. Bound demons and wax golems? The expense must have been enormous. But why? To what end?"

I'm guessing everybody got busy all at once. Plus, Qhude and N'bellocq are a good 8 hours at least ahead of the rest of us and have nothing to do but sit around and wait for the timeline to catch up to them.

Other than wandering the marketplace in search of fancy things to buy or steal (or in the hopes of running into a certain merchant who will hopefully buy her things), Ansha has nowhere to be, so I'm okay with a Later That Night.

Assuming that all that's going to be done pre-dinner is shopping, I have no issue with jumping the timeline forward to the next action with plot-consequence. If there's any chatting to be done, it can be covered in flextime.

Will Qhude and N'bellocq arrive back in time for our dinner appointment, or will they dine on impala with Jeggare and the caravan?

Well, Qhude's already stated his intention to wash himself and his clothing when he gets back. That's at least a +4 to Bluff to explain exactly how his shorts blew into the campfire and were reduced to ash while he had them off. ;)

Alternatively, Jakob could not tell Qhude about the invitation until after he's already washed his shorts and they don't have time to dry before dinner. Although, for the love of God, please have something there ready for him to put on before he shows up to Mindra Macini's nude.

(Come to think of it, I think Tebati has now seen everyone in the party but Jakob and Qhude nude already, thanks to N'bellocq's and Ansha's tendencies to answer the door naked.)

As for Ansha's predilection for nudity, blame the old 3.5 Book of the Wild for how I portray elves' standards of modesty. The old Ed Greenwood novel Elminster in Myth Drannor probably didn't help either, although at least I try to avoid really cheesy dialogue and appearance descriptions (that book was terrible for it).

On a related note, high society in the late Renaissance and Baroque periods saw a fashion trend for a while where women's masque costumes and formalwear didn't cover their breasts.

Tebati's actually on Qhude's side, though. She thinks it's silly and offensive that he's being judged by his clothing and would never dream of asking him to wear anything that it's not his idea to wear.

Your perfectly free to initiate other conversations, it would even be expected. Cross-table talk is part and parcel of such an event, just don't expect any conversation to be particularly private in such an occasion.

Meh, I was just at a rehearsal dinner a few weeks ago and got stuck at the end of the table where no one talked to me all night. The only one Tebati wants to talk to is the Zenj ranch guy, and it's too awkward to lean forward over the table and shout over Kieran and Bellis at him. She can't even see him from where she's seated. Round tables are much more conducive to conversation than long ones (the wedding the next night had round tables, and I had a much better time), which is why important people always have long tables so they can sit at the head of them and talk to everyone else while everyone else can basically only talk to them. It's how they keep people in their place and attention where it "belongs." :)

Plus, our hostess just initiated a conversation with Qhude and N'bellocq at the far end of the table, and it would be rude to start a conversation in between that they'd have to shout over. Tebati will just have to wait until after dinner and hope she gets a chance to meet Tabansi then.

Assuming things go roughly as I expect, you'll be spending a couple of weeks in Freehold to justify your *ding* to level 3. You have not yet hit that point but i'm going to continue reinforcing compulsory downtime for level ups, whether you want to post a brief summary or an epic montage is up to you. I'm happy to help with builds, answer questions, give advice etc. but I am quite firm on the downtime needed to level up- and the length of time this will take is also likely to increase as the campaign goes on. I actually think the level up process is a great conduit for role-playing character development.

Just so we're on the same page, in my Golarion, 3rd level's a fairly big deal. I feel most player's vision of Golarion is over-inflated with high level NPC's almost always with PC classes. I think you've actually only fought a single PC- classed NPC so far in this campaign. An adventurer is already a cut above an average warrior or magician and at 3rd level, you will easily be on of the highest level characters in Freehold. OOC, I believe Zesaste is one of the highest level if not highest, and he is 4th level.

Add to that the fact that each of your characters has the Epic stat array and your on double WBL; at 3rd level, your groups quite a big deal power wise.

Anyway- I would encourage you to make best use of this upcoming downtime in the game to develop your characters, both in terms of RP and your level up, because it will be tied to a RL hiatus of 2-3 weeks on my part. As I have mentioned, I lost almost all my notes on this game as well as a large map I had made from scratch when I had to format my PC- while i've been playing catch up when I have had some time spare, I do need some dedicated time to sit down and really hash it all out again.

Meh, I was just at a rehearsal dinner a few weeks ago and got stuck at the end of the table where no one talked to me all night. The only one Tebati wants to talk to is the Zenj ranch guy, and it's too awkward to lean forward over the table and shout over Kieran and Bellis at him. She can't even see him from where she's seated. Round tables are much more conducive to conversation than long ones (the wedding the next night had round tables, and I had a much better time), which is why important people always have long tables so they can sit at the head of them and talk to everyone else while everyone else can basically only talk to them. It's how they keep people in their place and attention where it "belongs." :)

Plus, our hostess just initiated a conversation with Qhude and N'bellocq at the far end of the table, and it would be rude to start a conversation in between that they'd have to shout over. Tebati will just have to wait until after dinner and hope she gets a chance to meet Tabansi then.

Must be my Norwegian heritage. My Norwegian family always dined at long tables and multiple conversations were usually had overlapping one another with little regard for where people were sat.

If it will prove more conductive to interaction, I can easily say that the table is round and that map was only to display the order everyone is sat in.

Must be my Norwegian heritage. My Norwegian family always dined at long tables and multiple conversations were usually had overlapping one another with little regard for where people were sat.

I point out that a family dinner is different than a dinner with strangers of whose intentions and motivations we are not yet confident. ;)

Just a matter of what you're used to, though, I guess. Growing up, almost everyone in our family had a round table, so family dinners were in the round except for at my great-aunt Edna's house. Not only did she have a long table, but the only children's toy she had in the house was a set of tiddlywinks, I always had to stay quiet and out of the way, and I didn't care for her cooking. So I guess I just associate long tables with unpleasant occasions. :)

After living in Qhude's head for just over 11 months I've finally learned the real reason why he goes shirtless everywhere. At first I figured it's just shirtless = tribal, but now I can apply the deeper retroactive truth that it is so that his scars are always visible - so all can see them and know his measure. Especially important to him personally given his particular history.

Has also reinforced my decision to stick to studded leather and not go to the mechanically superior chain shirt. I can flavor studded to include enough bare chest to make sure his scars are not completely covered :)

Qhude's eyes flicker up to Mitabu at his words... which are neutral enough to make him feel a slight shiver at the memory... and what came before it... cruelty and death. The demon ape... is his gaze truly upon me. His eyes go from the guardsman to Tebati across from him... remembering her words of the dawn thereafter...

Also, I believe it was Salgarth, Mindra's cousin, who asked about the Bas'o, not Mitabu the guard captain.

Honestly, if you expect to be taken seriously by a race of near-immortals you could have at least made that small concession by now.

On a budget of 3 skill points a level? I'm not a rogue here. :P

It takes all of one skill point to become fluent in Elven, so that doesn't seem so bad. At least we're not doing what my table-top GM used to do, and have you spend up to 6 points on a language: 1 was a few basic words, 2 was basic phrases, 3 was broken and halting command of the language, 4 was conversational, 5 was fluent non-native speaker, and 6 was fluent native speaker.

Well, when Ansha's dying of poison or disease because Tebati failed her Heal roll by 1, I'm sure she'll be deeply comforted to hear the bad news in her native tongue. ;)

Honestly, it seems like a waste to spend precious skill points in Linguistics for a class that can cast comprehend languages and (eventually) tongues. Come to think of it, Tebati has comprehend languages learned today. Just seems kind of rude to cast it to eavesdrop.

The way Pathfinder has nerfed those two spells makes me loath to put too much trust in them. In many cases, you're going to be better off rolling your own save with the +4 bonus a successful Heal check gives you than a simple d20 + caster level. We used a potion of remove disease in Serpent's Skull and rolled a 3 or something. 750 gp wasted. :P

At this level, a successful Heal check would give Ansha the same odds (1d20+5) to beat a disease DC that an expensive scroll or potion would, and for party members with a better Fort save, it takes even more levels to balance out the investment of a spell slot vs. a standard action.

Of course, it wouldn't have to be Heal that has its point taken for Elven; it could be Sense Motive or a Knowledge. But Tebati just doesn't seem the type to learn another language; she's not that scholarly and, frankly, kind of provincial.

thoughts on Jakobs advancement. For AK and anyone else who doesn't mind spoilers.:

I am thinking to start to play up the Haunted aspect of dear Jakob.
The way I see things when the old man who may or may not actually exist ripped open Jakobs head via the Dream spiders Jakob became attuned and open to the natural world. However nature is not Neutral good so there is a conflict going on in Jakobs head.
Your mention of 3rd level being a big deal makes me think this conflict is growing and will soon start to break into our heroes’ conscious mind. The vehicle for this will be spiders. Spiders are for Jakob the perfect symbol of "nature red in tooth and claw"; the subconsciously created symbol for those aspects of nature that Jakob cannot accept as just, fair, right, or natural. Pure carnivore, alien in appearance body structure and behavior spiders are 'other' to Jakob, however thay are not 'other' to nature or whomever is shoving power into the poor boy.

Practically I am not sure how this will manifest. Perhaps spider themed effects when using curse granted spells? Easy enough for mage hand but ghost sounds will be tricky. Or maybe he will start noting spiders present in the area. After all they are everywhere.

Just some thoughts on future development. And one more note. I am planning on Bonded Mount for Jacobs’ third level Revelation. I have not decided if I am using the Feat to get another, but if i do it will likely be Speak with Animals: horse with an outside option on Erosion touch. Anyway thanks for reading. I am quite enjoying this game.

Frankly I think the language we know ans "Sylvan" is a complex millennial-old joke played on mortals. The real sylvan language is constantly changing and it is all the fey can do not to explode with laughter when we tell then our "hovercraft is full of eels" and "our nipples explode with delight"